When Did We Become so Grateful Echoistic?

Let me kick off by saying I'm not an ungrateful person. I'm not mean either (okay this may be a lie), although this post may sound like it initially. The purpose of this post is to highlight how dramatically society's idea of showing gratitude changed since social media came along just more than a decade ago.

   On Facebook one Danielle Fourie made a post, saying thanks to South African Police members for assisting her mother yesterday in exchanging a flat tire. The post wasn't just made on the daughter's timeline, but in a group (too.) The main photo on top are of the specific cops. Nothing wrong with thanking them, right?

    Especially with South Africa being such a dangerous place, a woman stranded next to the road is bound to meet a bad fate, even at small villages like Heidelberg. As such the cops' help was certainly welcome.

[Let us all pretend we're not seeing 2 out of the 3 law enforcement officers breaking their country's law by not wearing masks. Guess it's safe to say you South African citizens can stop wearing yours too.]

    The FB group the post was made in is about the little town Heidelberg, one of two towns with the same name in the country, but this one in the most-effectively run province in SA, the Western Cape that also hosts Cape Town. The cops there are generally of far better quality than that if the rest of the country, with the majority being 'Cape Coloreds' and not black cops like in the rest of SA (except maybe the Northern Cape province too.)

But a few things about the post on social media bothers me.

Mavis vannie Lavis innie Malhuis

Op Facebook is 'n 'Kaapse Kleurlingvrou' (ek het nie 'n fokken clue of dit polities-korrek is nie) wat skerp van tong, en moersnaaks is. Dink Patricia de Lille, net tien keer beter. As sy in jul parlement was het Malema homself aan Floyd Shivambu se snot opgehang. 

Soek haar op FB onder die naam 'Mavis Vannie Lavis', as jy hou van eg-Kaapse vermaak op jou timeline. 

  Elk geval, kom ek op 'n plasing van haar af wat ek sonder haar toestemming net so gaan kopieër en hier plak, sodat as FB die dag haar account verban, van haar skerp skryfstyl darem behoue sal bly op die internet wat klaar so min Afrikaans het. Sy het darem wel haar plasing in die publieke domein geplaas op 'n platform wat haar nie betaal nie, so ek reken darem nie sy sal omgee vir ekstra publisiteit nie. 

  Sy bring glo volgende jaar 'n boek uit, dis absoluut 'n vereiste dat al sewe my lesers hul spaarvarkies begin gereedkry daarvoor. As mens na haar plasings op FB kyk en hoe sy dinge beskryf gaan haar boek een van daardie wees wat nie net gekoop gaan word nie, maar beslis gelees gaan word ook. Capies weet mos hoe om 'n ding te beskryf soos geen niemand anders in die wêreld nie.